


Honorable Discharge

by Gemfyre



Category: Terminator (Movies), Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-08
Updated: 2013-05-08
Packaged: 2017-12-10 18:27:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/788843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gemfyre/pseuds/Gemfyre
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Judgment Day truly has been averted, Sarah can’t help herself from checking up on the newborn Kyle Reese once 2007 rolls around.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Honorable Discharge

**Author's Note:**

> Some bits of this were inspired by Lightning by Dean Koontz, and also Pushing Daisies to a small extent - the whole watching people from afar thing.

Perhaps it was a stupid thing to do. She was now in her forties and her face was still on the FBI most wanted lists. And here she was, in a maternity ward. She hadn’t told John of her plans, just quietly scanned the birth notices every morning in the paper from the beginning of 2005. Eventually the notice she sought showed up, on February 16th, 2007. And now she was here, scanning the nametags until she found the newborn Kyle Reese. He was healthy and bright eyed and now had a bright future ahead of him. She smiled and slipped out of the hospital.  
  
John’s persistent good behaviour resulted in his juvenile record eventually being wiped, and he could go back to being himself. His mother, Sarah Connor, had disappeared and he would say that he guessed she was dead, probably got herself killed on one of her psycho missions. Of course, Sarah was still alive, just living under a tight pseudonym and he saw her often, but cautiously. Later he would ensure that Sarah had as much interaction with his family as any mother and grandmother should. To the rest of the world she was some random woman, no-one of any import, and she liked it that way.  
  
After leaving the hospital, Sarah resolved to return the favour he had bestowed on her. She would be his watcher and protector, even if she could never reveal herself. She had her ways of tracking the young Kyle and often checked on him as he grew up.  
  
She figured in the other future he must have lost his parents in the war when he was young. In this, better future he had two loving parents and Sarah was delighted to see him being walked to school on his very first day. The young Kyle was keen to begin learning and she saw from her vantage point in a ute parked on the side of the road that he had run ahead of his parents slightly, they were unable to call him back before he’d dashed on to the road. The SUV was speeding slightly, it probably could have braked in time, but Sarah noticed the driver chatting on a mobile phone and not paying attention to small people on the road. Sarah put the ute into gear and recklessly pulled out across the road. THAT was something the SUV driver couldn’t miss and she slammed on her brakes, slowing enough to only slightly dent the side of the ute. Sarah completed her U-turn and sped off down the road away from the scene. She had changed the licence plates on the ute within half an hour and ditched the vehicle by the end of the day.  
  
The next time she watched him was when he was 16. She sat in the back of the bleachers at a school game and watched him play football. He was a good player and good sport, shaking the hands of the other team members even when his team had lost. She followed him at a safe distance afterwards. He was sitting beside the car park, just thinking, when he was disturbed by yelling and the thud of a body on a car’s hood, followed by a short scream. Sarah watched as he strode over to the scene. A young man had punched a young woman, probably his girlfriend, in the face and she had fallen onto the car. Kyle wasted no time showing the guy how tough he really was. After a few well placed punches and some harsh words, the young man sped off in a car, abandoning a girlfriend who was obviously better off without him. Kyle helped her up. Tended to her bloodied nose and not long after managed to make her laugh. After about 20 minutes they both got into the same car and drove off together.  
  
She next tracked him down in 2029. The year he was sent back in time, in the old future. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw him, mowing the lawn, shirtless. Not a flaw in the skin on his back. She was now 64 and on her way to becoming an old woman, but for that moment she was 19 again, young and innocent and carefree. A woman came out of the front door carrying two bottles of beer, she handed one to Kyle and cracked open her own bottle and took a swallow. Sarah recognised her as the same girl from that night after the football game. He was still with her and they were obviously very happy in each other’s company. She rested her head on the steering wheel of her car and let herself cry. Happy tears. After what he’d been through in the other future, he deserved this.  
  
When she was 75 life caught up with her. The doctors supposed she wouldn’t last the year. It didn’t matter. She had seen a future where life was good, despite having to live below the radar. She always had been an integral part of John’s family and had watched two grandchildren grow up into a young man and woman. On her deathbed she was above the law and spent as much time as possible with them all. She also decided to write a letter, addressed to Kyle Reese, telling him everything. She knew he’d think of it as a letter from a demented old woman but she didn’t care.  
  
She held on for a few months longer than the doctor’s figured she would. John was not surprised in the least, his mother had always been an ardent fighter. During the fourth month of borrowed time she received a letter in reply to her own. She read it alone, increasingly wide-eyed at what this young man had to say. He had a daughter now, named Christine. He worked as a mechanic fixing mainly motorcycles and off-road vehicles. His wife… his wife’s name was Sarah Connor. Sarah had almost dropped the letter at this point and stopped reading, sure she was having a heart attack, but she read on. It seemed Kyle’s fate had retained some parts. He told her he didn’t think she was crazy, because if she was, then so was he. As a child he had had daydreams of being an officer in an army fighting strange robots. Even now, he still occasionally had dreams about a future that no longer existed. But now it was all clear to him and he was not angry or paranoid. Only grateful that she had written to tell him the story. The last line of his letter was a reprieve.  
  
 _You can rest your feet now soldier._  
Reese, Sergeant Tech-Com, DN38416  
  
She called John. He arrived with his family and she told them goodbye. Then she rested her feet, as commanded.


End file.
